1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a decorative transfer film for manufacturing a capacitive input device that can detect the contact position of a finger by detecting the change in capacitance, a manufacturing method of a capacitive input device, a capacitive input device obtained by the manufacturing method, and an image display device including the capacitive input device as a constituent.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in some electronic instruments such as cellular phones, car navigations, personal computers, ticket vending machines, and banking terminals, a tablet-type input device has been mounted on the surface of a liquid crystal device or the like. When an instruction image is displayed on an image display area of the liquid crystal device, a user touches the site displaying the instruction image with a finger, a stylus, or the like with reference to the instruction image, and in this manner, information corresponding to the instruction image can be input.
Such an input device (touch panel) includes a resistive film-type input device, a capacitive input device, and the like. However, having a double-sheet structure consisting of a film and glass in which a short circuit is caused by pushing down the film, the resistive input device has defects such as a narrow range of operation temperature and vulnerability to temporal change.
In contrast, the capacitive input device has an advantage that it can be prepared simply by forming a translucent conductive film on a sheet of substrate. Such a capacitive input device includes, for example, a type of input device which has electrode patterns extending in directions crossing each other, and detects an input position by detecting the change in capacitance between the electrodes when a finger or the like comes into contact with the device (for examples, see JP2007-122326A).
The capacitive input device also includes a type of input device in which alternating currents of the same phase and same potential are applied to both ends of a translucent conductive film so as to make the device detect an input position by detecting the flow of weak currents caused by a capacitor formed when a finger comes into contact with or approaches the device. Regarding this type of capacitive input device, there is a disclosure of a capacitive input device including a plurality of first transparent electrode patterns, in which a plurality of pad portions connected to one another through connection portions extends in a first direction, and a plurality of second transparent electrode patterns which is electrically insulated from the first transparent electrode patterns by an interlayer insulating layer and is composed of a plurality of pad portions extending in a direction crossing the first direction (for examples, see JP4506785B). However, since a front panel is laminated on the prepared capacitive input device described above, the capacitive input device has problems in that it is thick and heavy.
Furthermore, there is a disclosure regarding a capacitive touch panel in which a mask layer, a sense circuit, and an interlayer insulating layer are integrally formed on the surface of a non-contact side of a front panel (for example, see JP2009-193587A). In the capacitive touch panel disclosed in JP2009-193587A, the front panel is integrated with the capacitive input device. Consequentially, a thin-layer/lightweight capacitive touch panel can be obtained, and since the sense circuit is covered up with the mask layer, the external appearance of the device is improved.